How to improve your immune system and heal Palmoplantar Pustulosis through diet.

When I was diagnosed with Palmoplantar Pustulosis, I was determine to find a way to cure myself. There was no way I could accept life, living with a chronic skin disease which was disabling me.

I started to do a lot of research in to nutrition and how to boost and repair a dysfunctional immune system naturally. I discovered the key to improve your health, is basically to start with the gut or the flora which resides there. Your Gut health literally affects your entire body and it's the part of your body where most of the vitamins and minerals are absorbed which are needed for your immune cells to work properly. The only way to do this is to eat a diet containing all the nutrients you body (cells) so badly need to function and to remove the bad stuff from your diet that causes inflammation and don’t have any nutritional value.
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I discuss this subject more in depth in my book. 

But what does healing your gut actually mean?

Not a lot of people are aware of this but the gut is our biggest immune centre. With an unbalance gut it is just matter of time before disease enters your life. There are many factors to take in to account and why we end up with a non functional immune system resulting in an autoimmune disease.

The most important factor are the state of the gut (gastrointestinal tract). Scientist has just recently figured out the importance of our gut plays in our overall well being. These so called microbioms ( the bacteria living in our gut) also have over a hundred more genes compared to the human body cells genetic set-up. Our bodies are quite simply a host environment for bacteria. They use us for their own purposes and only care for their own well being. The molecules produced by the DNA of these bacteria have significant impact on our overall health. The gut flora determines the quality of the immune system and how much vitamins and minerals the cells absorb. The gut flora also communicates to the cells in the immune system which microbioms should be ignored and which ones should be attacked. In the intestines you will also find a large nervous system with equally many nerve cells as the spinal chord. The central vagus nerve is wandering from the intestine and goes all the way up to connect to the brain. 

The problem is most people never think about what’s happening with what they put in their mouth and what ends up in their tummy. It doesn't matter if it’s food, alcohol, drugs or vitamins. The fact is everything we digest has to go through an extensive metabolic process. Everything gets broken down to tiny components and are integrated with hormones, bacteria and cells to a molecular level. All of this affect each other and nothing goes passed by unnoticed. By changing our diets and the use of pre-and probiotics we can make sure we have a healthy gut flora where the good bacteria can flourish.
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​We are only as healthy as our gut bacteria or as the father of medicine Hippocrates said

 “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” ​
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What causes an impaired gut flora?

1. A diet maintaining manly junk and processed foods and a lot of sugar. These diets poor in nutrients makes all the wrong bacteria and yeast grow in the gut, leading to a damaged eco system.

2. Antibiotic overuse. 

3.Infections and gut imbalances. These include small intestinal bacteria overgrowth (SIBO), yeast overgrowth and parasites.

4.Inadequate digestive enzymes. Stress, acid-blocking medications and zinc deficiencies can all contribute to lack of adequate digestive enzyme function.

5.Stress. Chronic stress alters your gut nervous system, creating a leaky gut and changing the normal bacteria in the gut

But what should you eat?

It fairly simple and not that difficult to be honest!
Just eat the same things like your Granny and Granddad used to eat when they were young (or like their parents depending how old you are). I believe the only way to maintain healthy and to get well is to eat as much local and real food as possible. Local food varies hugely depending on where in the world you live. If you follow some of the main psoriasis forums you probably been reading about some people ended up in remission successfully by following Dr. Pagano's book Healing Psoriasis: The Natural Alternative or about people going all vegan resulting in remission from disease. Personally I think this way of eating might be a bit extreme, but whatever works, just do it. 

When I began healing from PPP I started with cutting out processed/packaged food, sugar, fizzy drinks and gluten. I made sure everything I ate was loaded with vitamins, minerals and enzymes. This was fairly simple because when just eating traditional Swedish food (the country where I'm from and live), I automatically ate an healthy diet which is naturally the most optimal way to eat for me as a swede. the reason is my forefathers have been eating similar things for years and genetically that's what my body thrives on. So in my case that meant a lot of vegetables, fat and meat.

My diet during my healing process!

Even if you now understand what needs to be done to heal from PPP, The question is how you do it? It might seem overwhelming at first to eliminate certain foods you are used to. As what do you eat instead of bread? What if you are craving sugar? What if you feel there's no time to cook? 
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To be able to heal from Palmoplantar Pustulosis or any other autoimmune disease, you need to be committed! If you feel there's no time, make the time, try to stay away from social media sites such as Facebook and cut down on watching television shows and other time filling activities. Learn how to cook a few dishes and rotate them. I tend to cook and eat the same food for a whole week as it's convenient and it saves me time doing the shopping and think about what to cook for the next day. Below is what I would eat a typical day.

Morning

Fist thing: A green Juice or a big glas of water
Supplements: D3+K2, Probiotics, Zinc, Chlorella, clorestal

Breakfast: A boiled egg (or two) plus an avocado or a banana.

Snack: An apple or an orange

Afternoon

Lunch: Local traditional food, in Sweden that would be Potatoes, meat, fish, gravy with loads of vegetables including fermented vegetables such as sauerkraut (natural probiotics). (no processed food, no sugar, nor gluten). If you're a vegetarian, substitute the meat with mushrooms or Halloumi cheese. Eat as much as you want until you're full.

Snack: An apple or some other fruit.

Evening

Dinner: Same as lunch, the smart thing is to cook plenty for dinner so there are leftovers for tomorrow's lunch.

After dinner try not to eat anything else, let your stomach rest (fast) and recover. If you get hungry between meals drink water or green tea to fill you up, if you're starving snack on vegetables. The thing is if you had enough good food full of vitamins, minerals and fat for lunch/dinner you shouldn't feel hungry in the evening.

If you haven't watched the channel 4 documentary "The Worlds Best Diet" I highly recommend you do so. The presenters travels around the world to 50 different countries, listing the worlds worst and best diets starting with the country with the worst diet and ending with the country with the best diet. Apart from the conclusion of this documentary it's also nice to get an insight how people live and around the world.

****** UPDATE 2020: This documentary is not longer available on YouTube - to watch it you have to see it on Amazon Prime *****

Tell me about what you eat? Do you follow a special diet?

​Åsa Kärrman